Can America find a new MacArthur for Baghdad?

Colin Joyce in Tokyo looks back on a successful occupation

12:01AM BST 05 Jul 2003

The enormous Cadillac used by Gen Douglas MacArthur during six years as Japan's overlord is now in MacArthur's Garage, a bar in Atsugi, a few miles from where he landed in August 1945, wearing dark sunglasses and with a pipe jutting from his mouth.

The conqueror's casual look was shocking to the Japanese but many today view the moment as the birth of democracy in Japan.

A Cadillac would not be very useful on Iraq's dusty roads but, as the American occupation of Iraq runs into increasing difficulties, US officials can but look wistfully at Gen MacArthur's success.

The Americans came to Japan as conquerors after the defeated Emperor told his people that the time had come to "bear the unbearable".

Some committed suicide rather than face that shame. Now, though, the Japanese have happy memories of their only period of foreign occupation.

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Portraits of the general stare down at customers drinking beer and eating MacArthur beef jerky. The talk is not usually about the general but, when it is, the compliments are warm.

When Saddam Hussein fell, President George W Bush's administration decided to shy away from a style of rule as personal or colourful as MacArthur's.

Jay Garner, a retired general, arrived in Iraq with little fanfare as the American administration sought to avoid the accusation that it was a neo-colonial power. Derided by his critics as dull and ineffectual, he was quickly replaced.

But, after two months of rule by his more hard-hitting successor, Paul Bremer, the reconstruction effort remains bogged down and US officials may wish they could install a figurehead as charismatic and forceful as Japan's post-war administrator.

An authoritarian state was transformed into a democracy and the foundations were laid for the most remarkable economic recovery in history.

In recognition of its own experience, Japan is a generous donor to ruined countries. It has pledged £66 million of aid to Iraq and its neighbours and last year hosted an Afghan reconstruction conference.

Gen MacArthur, a committed Christian, brought what the historian John Dower called "messianic zeal" to democratisation and demilitarisation.

The Japanese military was destroyed as a caste, with a democratic constitution drafted instead. Industrial conglomerates were broken up, trade unions were legalised and farmland was redistributed. The education system was revamped.

Japanese, used to the idea of revolution from above, warmed to their American shogun. Thousands sent letters of praise to Gen MacArthur and gifts of local delicacies and crafts.

His office has been preserved in an insurance company's building. A spokesman for the firm said: "It is a piece of history. The occupation did more good than bad. MacArthur taught us Japanese what is freedom."

The occupation cannot be judged a complete success, though in Japan few dwell on the failures. Historians argue that Gen MacArthur's decision to absolve Emperor Hirohito of blame for the war waged in his name allowed Japanese to escape soul-searching over the war.

Gen MacArthur's departure in 1951 was widely mourned. Whether the people of Iraq will feel the same way towards the Americans in 50 years looks less certain.